Controlling the Goddess
Controlling The Goddess
Chronicles Of KieraFreya™ 02
Michael Anderle
This book is a work of fiction.
All of the characters, organizations, and events portrayed in this novel are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Sometimes both.
Copyright © 2019 Michael Anderle
Cover by Mihaela Voicu http://www.mihaelavoicu.com/
Cover copyright © LMBPN Publishing
A Michael Anderle Production
LMBPN Publishing supports the right to free expression and the value of copyright. The purpose of copyright is to encourage writers and artists to produce the creative works that enrich our culture.
The distribution of this book without permission is a theft of the author’s intellectual property. If you would like permission to use material from the book (other than for review purposes), please contact support@lmbpn.com. Thank you for your support of the author’s rights.
LMBPN Publishing
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Las Vegas, NV 89109
First US edition, July
eBook ISBN: 978-1-64202-371-8
Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
Chapter 37
Chapter 38
Chapter 39
Chapter 40
Chapter 41
Chapter 42
Chapter 43
Chapter 44
Chapter 45
Chapter 46
Chapter 47
Chapter 48
Chapter 49
Chapter 50
Chapter 51
Chapter 52
Chapter 53
Chapter 54
Chapter 55
Chapter 56
Chapter 57
Chapter 58
Chapter 59
Chapter 60
Chapter 61
Chapter 62
Chapter 63
Chapter 64
Chapter 65
Chapter 66
Chapter 67
Chapter 68
Chapter 69
Epilogue
Creator Notes - Michael Anderle
Books by Michael Anderle
Connect with the author
Controlling The Goddess Team
Thanks to our JIT Readers
Dave Hicks
Deb Mader
Diane L. Smith
Dorothy Lloyd
Jeff Eaton
John Ashmore
Kelly O’Donnell
Larry Omans
Misty Roa
Peter Manis
If We’ve missed anyone, please let us know!
Editor
The Skyhunter Editing Team
To Family, Friends and
Those Who Love
To Read.
May We All Enjoy Grace
To Live The Life We Are
Called.
Chapter One
“Come on, guys. We’re on fire!”
A series of groans erupted from behind Chloe as she teetered on the edge of a rocky outcrop, waiting for the others to join her.
“Really? That joke again?” Ben complained. “Seriously, Chloe, you need to work on your sense of humor. Maybe there’s a skill for it you can develop somehow. Aren’t you level 3 in charisma?”
Ben trod carefully to the edge of the rock as the rocky platform floated and bobbed beneath them. Tag, Gideon, Ben, Jesepiah, and the shaman (in wisp form), huddled closely, each one not wanting to be the first to leap over the gap between where they stood and where Chloe was now.
Why?
Well, that part was easy. Raging hot lava flowed in the cracks between the platforms. Bubbling, boiling magma that made Chloe’s vision shimmer and warp through waves of heat. They were sweating, all of them, and had dark grubby patches on their faces. A line of similar looking platforms behind them allowed players some sort of safe passage across the molten landscape.
“Level 4, actually,” Chloe said smugly. She touched her chin. “Not sure if that includes a humor subcategory or not, though. Doesn’t really matter at this point, does it? Now, take my hand and jump.”
It had been this way for most of their journey. After the excitement of traveling through the desert beneath the sand on the back of the strange bird-like creatures they’d come to know as ‘scoopers,’ Chloe and the others had emerged from the sands dizzy with adrenaline.
The birds had risen of their own accord, somehow able to navigate the endless desert without a compass or guide. The adventurers had dismounted, wobbling a little on their feet as they hit the sand, patted the birds’ bodies, and watched with heavy hearts as they buried themselves back beneath the sand and returned to the sherikans—the sand-shark race who lived in the Lost Palace of Irizeth beneath the desert floor.
They had been transported to the edge of the desert, a place where the yellow sands blurred and melted into the blackened residue of the volcanic region of Bahrum—a desolate land of fire, rock, and lava.
Their expedition began quickly, each adventurer wanting to spend as little time in the area as possible. However, that was proving a lot trickier than planned.
Not only was the landscape a patchwork of fire, rocky platforms, and smoke, but they had already encountered several swarms of enemies in this supposedly “abandoned” region of the world. Tiny, rat-sized creatures that Chloe had identified with Creature Identification as “Lavarites” sprang from the flames, scurried up the rocks, and burned their ankles with microscopic nibbles.
Ben took a deep breath, sweat pouring down his head, then leaped. Chloe reached out to catch him, but the graceful elf needed no assistance. He landed without a sound on the rock beside her.
Gideon came next, teetering on the rock’s edge, glancing down at the magma below.
“Don’t look down,” Chloe cautioned, feeling as though that was the hundredth time she’d said that to the nervous mage.
“Bit late for that, Chloe,” Tag replied, stroking his thick beard and resting his hands on his hammer. Chloe had struggled with Tag the most. The smallest and heaviest of their group, each jump with Tag had felt like a workout, with the dwarf kicking and struggling as they all worked together to raise him to safety.
Gideon leveled his eyes with Chloe. “Okay, here goes…”
Like a rugby player taking deliberate, measured steps backward, he lined up his run. Puffing hard, he ran with gritty determination, taking off from one foot, screaming, and landing on the edge of the platform.
He tottered backward, arms windmilling in the air before Chloe and Ben grabbed him under each arm and pulled him forward.
Jesepiah waited patiently, crouching and lacing her fingers together to provide a launching platform for the dwarf. Since her resurre
ction after dying in the desert, she and Tag had been close. They made a cute couple, Chloe thought. Weird, but cute.
Makes me want to throw up, KieraFreya said, her words audible only in Chloe’s head.
Chloe grinned, amused by the spirit of the Goddess of Retribution that inhabited the elements of armor that she wore. The pieces of armor were the very reason they had come on this quest in the first place—so that Chloe could reunite all the lost fragments of KieraFreya’s armor and bring her essence back together.
Oh, and to gain a crapload of experience points along the way.
Tag jumped on the three-count, this latest launch far more successful than their first few attempts. On those, Tag had jumped on the down dip, rather than the up, meaning his legs had flailed through the air and he had landed on the rock on his face.
If it hadn’t been for Chloe’s Healing Hands spell, Tag’s nose would still be a bloody mess right now. He hadn’t even thanked her, just grunted and got back in the saddle to try the jump again.
This time, Tag timed it perfectly, springing into the air and extending his arms into a swan dive. Chloe, Gideon, and Ben caught him, the extra weight of the dwarf toppling them all back into a pile of people.
“Hugs!” Tag puckered his lips. “Who wants hairy dwarf kisses?”
Gideon, Ben, and Chloe protested, pushing the dwarf’s face away playfully and scrambling out from beneath him. By the time they were back on their feet and away from the giggling dwarf, Jesepiah had already made her jump and was watching them all with folded arms.
“There are times when being the last one to enter a group makes you feel like an outsider,” she said, unable to hide the grin on her face. “Times you feel you could be closer to the others in the group. That wasn’t one of them.”
“Don’t be jealous, girl.” Tag winked, approaching Jesepiah and hugging her around her ample waist. He looked hilarious, his hands unable to meet around her, his head coming up to the height of her breasts.
Chloe wondered if that was one of the reasons he liked her. Because he could use her boobs as a headrest.
“Finally,” Chloe said at last, turning with her hands on her hips and staring up at the volcano that sloped dramatically before them. The rock was black and igneous, with only a small pathway leading the way to the dark entrance of the cave that loomed halfway up like an open mouth. “Onward and upward!”
“Can’t we just stop for a minute?” Jesepiah asked, patting Tag’s head with one hand. “Take a rest. We’ve come so far.”
She waved an arm back the way they had come, the desert now so far beyond the horizon that it was almost as though it had never existed. She was unaware that she’d just gotten the attention of some small glowing creatures that now clambered out of the lava and onto the far edge of the platforms they had just come from.
Chloe pointed their way. “I’d suggest gaining higher ground unless you’re in the market for another new pet to burp and care for.”
Tag stuck up a middle finger at Chloe.
Or at least, tried too.
“No way.” Ben laughed. Chloe and Gideon, seeing what he was seeing, clutched their stomachs.
“What?” Tag said, unwrapping himself from Jesepiah’s embrace and looking at his finger. “Oh, for…really?”
Where Tag’s middle finger should have been proudly standing up on his hand, there was nothing but a strange gaggle of large pixels blurring the action.
“I can’t even swear non-verbally? What kind of stupid game is this?” Tag grumbled, trying the other hand. One minute his finger was among the others, proudly erect, but as soon as he put down the other four, a blurry mass took its place.
“Should we really be that surprised?” Chloe managed between bursts of laughter. “Praxis has tried to make this game family-friendly—as far as they can, anyway. Maybe it’s just for the viewers watching at home.”
Chloe turned to the sky and gave a wave to the air as if she were on a game show and the cameras were watching her. “Hi, viewers!”
Ben and Gideon looked around nervously to see what Chloe was waving at. They shrugged, dismissing the action, then returned their attention to the problem at hand.
“Erm, guys?” Gideon said, the lavarites now hopping over to the next platform. One of the creatures coughed and spat a small fireball, which fell short of the group by a few feet.
“Right,” Chloe said, turning her head up to the cave entrance. “Onward and upward!”
The trek up the volcano was winding and endless. When they had made it high enough to see the rolling, bleak landscape stretching in every direction, Chloe felt her heart drop. The thought suddenly hit her: somehow, we’re going to have to travel back from this, too.
How will it be much different than traveling here? KieraFreya asked. Every journey requires the trip before the destination is reached.
Oh, so you’re a philosopher now? Chloe teased.
You get a lot of time to think when you’re just being lugged around by a nobody on a quest. I don’t think I’ve said this already, but kudos on making it this far. I never thought you’d have it in you.
Thanks for the vote of confidence…I think, Chloe replied.
Can you blame me? A level 1 player finding the bracers of KieraFreya in the pit of a torturous, hidden dungeon? Call me skeptical, but I figured both you and I would be dead and out of this a long time ago.
Chloe smiled, remembering the quest well. She tried to get a grip on time within the game, wondering how long ago that all had been. Was it a month? Six months? A year? The whole thing blurred into one big experience while she played within the full-immersion VR game.
Mia had told her that time went double-speed in Obsidian compared to the time passing in reality, yet that still didn’t give her any bearings. Surely one of her siblings’ birthdays would be coming up soon? Henrietta and Henry? Hector? Harry? Harvey? What would their birthdays be like without her around?
Probably no different, Chloe thought darkly, remembering Henrietta and Henry—her non-identical twin brother and sister—and their last birthday. She hadn’t even received an invitation. Chloe, the runt of the litter and the family disappointment, not even invited to her own siblings’ birthday party.
Or maybe she had gotten one, but it had gotten lost.
Maybe Chloe had lobbed the invitation into the bin during one of her alcohol-fueled Friday night furies, unable to stand being in the same room as all of her successful blood relatives while they looked down their nose at the one Lagarde who had yet to blossom into a glorious money-spewing flower on the family tree.
Whatever had happened, she hardly thought she’d been missed. She wasn’t even sure if any of them cared where she was right now. The family psychologist, Demetri, had gotten Chloe an exclusive 2-year sign-off to immerse herself in the game and improve her confidence and wellbeing, but had any of them even asked where she was?
Did any of them even care?
Chloe shook her head, erasing the negative thoughts that began to circle. She could hear the others behind her huffing and grunting as they continued to walk, and that brought a smile to her face. These were her real friends. Her real family. They were all she needed.
Something squawked above. Strange dark silhouettes of large birds circled overhead, reminding Chloe of the outlines of pterodactyls she had seen in kids’ books. She kept an eye on them, the birds showing no sign of attacking the group—yet—and by the time the sky had turned an even darker black, they had arrived at the cave entrance.
They collapsed on the floor, each of them taking large gulps from the waterskins provided to them by the sherikans. Chloe propped her back against the wall, leaned her head back, and chewed on a biscuit, which had also been provided.
Chloe closed her eyes, bringing up her menus into the dark behind her eyelids. She examined her character sheet, smiling with smug satisfaction at the values of her attributes and the selection of skills she had acquired throughout her journey thus far.
&nb
sp; Bio
Character name: Chloe (click to select a new character name)
Level: 11
Class: Battle Mage (Novice)
Race: Human
Stats
HP: 325/325
MP: 540/540
Stamina: 375/375
Active effects: Null
Boons: +15% luck to experimental magicks
Attributes
Strength: 22 (+32)
Intelligence: 10 (+34)
Dexterity: 20 (+34)
Endurance: 25 (+29)
Etheric Potential: 9 (+46)
Skills
Languages: Human
Acrobatics: Lv 3
Armed Combat: Lv 3
Charismatic: Lv 4
Cooking: Lv 2
Crafting: Lv 1
Creature Identification: Lv 4
Dark Vision: Lv 4
Dual Wielding: Lv 2
Experimental: Lv 1
Fishing: Lv 1